Interesting. Maybe the wasted heat can be put to good use. Too bad sterling engines are so bulky.
Ping...
This development, along with the new thin solar sheeting that can replace heavy solar panels on buildings, may finally signal the end of the oil era. With oil supplies currently in the hands of our enemies, we should welcome these break-through technologies.
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Am I the only one thats skeptical about this? Batteries require a chemical reaction in order to work. That is ions must attach themselves to anodes and cathoses. Clearly the ions must be in some sort of solution (or emulsion) to be available for that. No one seems to notice the amount of chemical needed in a battery when the battery powers a flashlight or mp3 player. But I wonder how big a battery must be (with all of the chemicals) in order to move a one-ton auto 200-300 miles (up and down hills). I simply don’t believe that you can downsize a battery and get that sort of power from it.
And by "performance" they mean gas mileage.
But will they have any power?
Adam Smith was right, the “invisible hand” works
Personally I would like to see the car body itself a solar cell but would not appear as so, it can be painted with a certain paint to simulate colors or graphics, just the car sitting in a car lot, shopping mall lot, at work or at home it can charge into a local grid.
Is this true?.........I could have sworn mine was Lead-Acid..........
Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
Awesome news. Good for the environment, good for business, good for the consumer. Stupid PowerPoint slides from a fat, bearded liberal? Nope. Pissing and moaning from insane hyperenvironmentalists? Nope. Good ol’ American business know-how and scientific ingenuity? Ding, ding, ding.
I’m not surprised to see ExxonMobil investing heavily in research and development - they have quite a bit of money to invest and diversifying their energy offerings is always a good business move for a company of their size.
Sounds like nothing more than a fancy capacitor.
Meh - only almost 2 years or so behind Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) and Nihon:
Tokyo, Feb 6, 2006 (JCN) - Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), the manufacturer of Subaru vehicles, announced on February 6 that it has signed a five-year agreement to license its lithium ion capacity technology to Nihon Micro Coating.
Under the license agreement, Nihon Micro Coating will nonexclusively be able to develop, prototype, manufacture, use, and market lithium ion capacitors based on FHI’s capacity that uses its proprietary pre-doping technology to occlude lithium ions on a negative electrode to significantly increase the capacitor’s energy density.
Known for its expertise in coating, Nihon Micro Coating has manufactured lithium ion capacitor electrodes for FHI since 2002.
Given that lithium ion capacitors will have potential to be deployed in hybrid vehicles and replace automobile lead batteries, as well as find applications in consumer devices and industrial equipment, Nihon Micro Coating will work on the manufacturing of capacitor cells and the commercially producing lithium ion capacitors. In the meantime, FHI will also work with other companies to further research lithium ion capacitors.
It seems to me that the first thing they should do is up the voltage of ordinary gasoline cars. Instead of a 12 volt system, they should change over to a 36 or even a 60 volt system. Sure the batteries will be bigger and more expensive, but they will save on wire and motors. A sixty volt motor is much smaller for equivalent power output than a 12 volt motor. Wires can be much smaller diameter too because you need fewer amps when using higher voltages. IN a luxury car, the weight savings could be quite a bit.
Now, the battery will be much larger and heavier, so there will be more incentive to find lighter smaller battery technology.
This electric vehicle development needs to be done in very small increments. I remember reading that they are going to improve the electrical systems of semis so that they don’t have to sit idleing all night long in the winter. THat is a good first step. Now we need higher voltage systems in passenger cars.
I also remember reading that one of the semi engine producers(cummins I think), was offering an option that would shut down all non essential electricity consuming devices and also shut down the alternator when accelerating hard or climbing hills. THis gave the engine just a little bit of a power boost. Then on the down hill side, the alternator would power back up and recharge the battery. This needs to be applied to passenger cars too. It would be even more productive on gasoline ingines since a gasoline engine needs electrical spark to run.
THen once these electrical upgrades are perfected, try applying the technology to hybrid vehicles. And once hybrids are good enough to stand on their own feet without government incentives and subsidies, they can start shrinking the internal combustion portion of the hybrid and increasing the electric portion of the hybrid. Eventually, you will have an all-electric vehicle.
...And when your car won’t start, just hit ctrl-alt-delete and away you goooooooo...............
bump for later...